186 LOCH-FISHING. 



those that are found in rivers, being in some lochs 

 quite equal, if not superior, to the salmon itself, and 

 cutting much redder in the flesh. 



Most of those acquainted with the subject are 

 of opinion that loch-trout are of the same species as 

 those which are found in rivers, and that their dis- 

 tinctive characteristics are entirely the result of 

 feeding. In some lochs, in addition to the common 

 trout, the Salmo ferox is found a large coarse 

 species, chiefly predatory in its habits, but affording 

 excellent play when hooked. This fish is occasion- 

 ally caught of great size, and numbers have been 

 caught weighing from ten to twenty pounds. One 

 was caught last year by William Muir, Esq. of 

 Innistrynich, which completely surpasses any that 

 we have ever heard of. This patriarch of the species 

 weighed 39 J pounds, and measured 3 feet 9 inches 

 in length, and 2 feet 2j inches in girth. 



What is remarkably strange, it was taken by Mr. 

 Muir with fly, when engaged in angling for salmon 

 in the river Awe where it leaves the loch of the same 

 name, and landed after a run of upwards of two 

 hours, during which Mr. Muir had to cross the river 

 in a boat which fortunately was at hand. What 

 age this fish was it is impossible to conjecture. It 

 was, as its dimensions prove, a well-conditioned fish, 

 and had the curvature of the upper jaw which is 

 usually considered to betoken age very strongly 

 developed. Conjecture and imagination would be 

 alike at fault in reckoning what number of lines, of 



